The first DreamLeague tournament took place back in 2013, when only six teams competed for a modest US$50,000 prize pool. Today, DreamLeague tournaments are some of the most important in the Dota 2 world. Three tournaments with US$1-million prize pools are held annually, and, since 2023, DreamLeague has been part of the ESL Pro Tour along with ESL One. The battle for DreamLeague Season 25 is in full swing, and we will soon know the winner’s name.
DreamLeague Season 25 tournament format
The DreamLeague Season 25 tournament runs from February 16 to March 2, 2025. Four teams received direct invitations to the tournament thanks to their high positions in the EPT Leaderboard:
- – PARIVISION,
- – BetBoom Team,
- – Team Falcons,
- – Team Liquid.
Another 12 DreamLeague Season 25 participants were determined in the regional qualifiers:
- – Western Europe: AVULUS, Tundra Esports, Gaimin Gladiators
- – Eastern Europe: Team Spirit, 9Pandas
- – MESWA: Chimera Esports
- – China: Yakult Brothers, Xtreme Gaming
- – Southeast Asia: Moodeng Warriors, BOOM Esports
- – North America: Shopify Rebellion
- – South America: HEROIC
The DreamLeague Season 25 tournament is held in three stages. In the first group stage from February 16 to 19, all participants were divided into two groups of eight teams each. Each team played one Bo2 match with each of its opponents. Based on the results of this stage, the four best teams from each group advanced to Group Stage 2, and the four worst teams left the tournament.
Thus, the eight best teams of the tournament have entered Group Stage 2. From February 21 to 27, the teams again had to play one match with each of their opponents. However, at this stage, all games have been in the Bo3 format, which means no drawn games. The two best teams in this part of the tournament directly enter the Upper Bracket Final, and the teams from 3rd and 4th place qualify for the Lower Bracket Semifinal.
The tournament’s final stage will take place over the weekend of March 1 to 2. The winner of the Upper Bracket Final will advance to the Grand Final (Bo5), while the remaining participants will have to fight for the second ticket in the Lower Bracket Semifinal (Bo3) and Lower Bracket Final (Bo3) matches.
Favourites and teams to watch
It is obvious that even before the first matches, the main favourites of the tournament were considered to be the four teams with direct invites: PARIVISION, BetBoom Team, Team Falcons and Team Liquid. All four teams justified the advances given and successfully passed Group Stage 1.
However, already in the second stage Team Liquid lost the first four out of seven matches, practically losing their chances of reaching the playoffs. The situation is slightly better for BetBoom Team, who are in the lower half of the group with a 1-3 score and can still turn the tournament situation in their favour.
Tundra Esports has a very serious chance of winning, having won the first two major tournaments of 2025 – FISSURE PLAYGROUND #1 and BLAST Slam II. The team confidently took first place in Group A of the first stage with a 6-1-0 score, confirming in practice the peak form of its players.
The real revelation of DreamLeague Season 25 was the young Chimera Esports team, founded just a couple of months ago – on December 10, 2024. The team took second place in Group B in the first stage and went 4-0 in the second stage, practically guaranteeing a place in the tournament’s playoffs.
To get to DreamLeague Season 25, the team beat the very strong Nigma Galaxy in the closed qualifiers of the Middle East & Southwest Asia (MESWA) region in early January 2025. Just two weeks later, international bookmaker 1xBet announced that it was becoming the title sponsor of the promising newcomers from the Asian region!
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